


A Cause; A Purpose

by tjs_whatnot



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Angst, Crossover, Gen, Post-Canon, Snark, off screen matt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 05:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13139910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjs_whatnot/pseuds/tjs_whatnot
Summary: Tony gives Jessica information and a purpose.





	A Cause; A Purpose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chosenfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chosenfire/gifts).



> Chosenfire--I set out to tell a Jessica/Matt story, or even maybe just a Jessica & Matt story. But then I just had too much fun with what a conversation between Tony and Jessica would go like. ;)

Tony Stark stood on the other side of the sliding glass doors of Stark Towers and watched his next appointment get out of the cab, hunch her shoulders and look all around her before clomping to the entrance. He recognized the jacket and scarf before he recognized her, but he wasn’t one to criticize someone’s need of hiding under armour. She walked through the door before looking up at him.

“Ms. Jones.”

“Iron-Man.”

“Please, call me Tony.”

“Sure. I’ll do that.”

Tony studied her as the door slid closed behind her. “You’re fuckin’ with me, right?”

She shrugged. “It’s something I do.”

“Well, aren’t you just adorable,” he said, walking to the elevator.

She glared at his backside, but followed him. “Look, I could do this witty back and forth with you all day, I get a sense we’d probably be pretty good at it, but I got things to do, so why don’t you just tell me why I was summoned.”

He pushed the UP button of the glass elevator. “SHIELD has had it’s eye on you for a while now.”

“SHIELD? That’s a real thing?”

Tony nodded as they got in and he pushed the button to take them to his office. 

“I always assumed it was one of the government agencies that the tin-foil hat gang made up to have something to rail against. You know like NASA and the FDA.”

Tony gave her a withering look before shaking his head. “Nope. Not rising to the bait. Listen, Lara Croft, I get you, I get what you’re about. This cynical, removed from people, above it all shell you got. I get that. I got one too. Basically, you and I, we’re very similar.”

Now the withering stare was Jessica’s. Tony amended. “I’m just a smarter, richer, better looking--”

“Older.”

“You.”

“Oh yeah, like looking in a Funhouse Mirror.”

“Exactly. So, I’ll get to the point if you cut the shit.”

She swallowed her retort and instead answered, “I’ll try my best.”

“Tell me what you know about Matt Murdock.”

Jessica froze. 

“Excuse me?” she finally asked.

“Matthew Murdock. You know him?”

“My lawyer?”

Tony leaned against his desk and crossed his arms, cocking an eyebrow. “Ms. Jones, we know who Murdock is when he’s not a mild-mannered blind lawyer.”

“Well, if you and your Super Friends know who he is, then you know that he died. Had a whole building fall on him.”

“A building that _you_ dropped?”

Jessica took a deep breath. “ _You_? You’re going to give me grief for that? _You_? How many buildings did you drop last time you were in NYC? How many injuries were caused? Fatalities?”

Tony raised a hand and flipped his wrist. “Touche. So, the building came down and the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen was crushed underneath. Who else was there?”

“I thought SHIELD knew all.”

“It only knows what it's told, what it can gather and what it can corroborate. That’s why I’m talking to all of you.”

Jessica looked around. “All of us?”

“Individually. I’ve already talked to the Golden Boy.”

“You two must have hit it off like a house fire.”

Tony smirked again. “We do have billions in common, but sadly, that’s all we have in common. He’s a little…”

“Something?” Jessica filled in for him.

“Yes. We’ll leave it at that. Danny Rand is a little _something _.”__

__They smiled at each other for a moment before Jessica checked herself. She’d heard about Stark’s charm, but she refused to be susceptible to that behavior. Never again._ _

__“Anyone else?” she asked._ _

__“No,” Tony drawled. “Still haven’t gotten a hold of the Black Hulk”_ _

__“Good luck with that.”_ _

__“You have any ideas where we should look?”_ _

__Jessica shrugged. “No idea. But when you find him, definitely call him that, he’ll get a kick out of it.”_ _

__“Yeah?”_ _

__“Absolutely. Though, you might want to suit up first.”_ _

__Tony smiled and went to stand behind his desk and indicated she sit in a chair on the other side._ _

__She walked to it but stood beside it while he sat in his. “What do you want to know?”_ _

__“I want to know who he was fighting when the building fell.”_ _

__“I’m sure you recovered the bodies. I know there hasn’t been any news on that, but come on, that’s what covert government agencies are for, yes?”_ _

__Tony smirked. “One. They found one.”_ _

__Jessica swallowed, not knowing which name she wanted to hear. If it was Matt that would prove once and for all that he was really, truly dead and she didn’t think she’d ever be ready to know that for sure. The alternative was much worse. If it wasn’t Electra then she didn’t know what that would mean._ _

__“Matt?” she asked in a whisper._ _

__Tony nodded._ _

__Her blood ran cold. “Fuck.”_ _

__“That bad?” Tony asked._ _

__Jessica swallowed. “Worse.”_ _

__“I’ve seen worse.”_ _

__Jessica was going to retort, but thought better of it. He was probably right. “What do you know about The Hand?”_ _

__“Just what Rand told me.”_ _

__“And did he mention Black Sky?”_ _

__“He was a little fuzzier on her. What can you tell me?”_ _

__“Not much. I only got the basics before she tried to kill us all. She was with Matt when the building fell on him. She should have been found with his corpse.”_ _

__“His body.”_ _

__She was going to continue to explain how dangerous this woman was, how she’d died at least once before and it was imperative that she be found, if they have to reduce every single stone of that building to sand, she had to be found. Only… there was something strange about his correction of her statement._ _

__“His body? Not his…” Her legs went out under her, she landed hard in the chair, a buzzing in her ears. Thankfully though, Stark had taken that moment fo shut up to give her a minute. She found herself feeling great gratitude._ _

__“He’s…”_ _

__“Alive?” Tony finished for her, nodding. “Barely.”_ _

__“Where?”_ _

__“Here. He’s in bad shape. Every bone broken, every organ needing repair. And still, we had to fight him to get him in a coma so that we could give him the care required. With his last conscious breath he asked for only one thing.”_ _

__“What?” Jessica asked._ _

__“You.”_ _

__“Me?” She didn’t understand; she couldn’t comprehend. “Why?”_ _

__“Well, we could just wake him up again, expose him to more pain than you could ever imagine to ask him, but we thought we’d ask you first.”_ _

__Jessica shook her head and mumbled. “I don’t… I mean… I can’t...I don’t know.”_ _

__“What was your relationship?”_ _

__“Our _relationship_?” She racked her brain for a definition to that word that related to them that would make any sense of this. “I don’t… he was my lawyer. We bonded over cracking skulls of some seriously horrible people. I’m sure if we’d gotten the chance, we might have been, I don’t know… friends? As much as that’s possible for people like us.”_ _

__“People like us--heroes?” Tony asked._ _

__Jessica shivered. _That fucking word again_. “No, people like us--assholes.”_ _

__Tony laughed._ _

__The sound of it, the purity of it, clicked something in Jessica and she laughed too. Or smiled, which was close enough. She was going to put The Hand and Black Sky in the SHIELD’s lap and let them sort it out. They were equipped for that sort of thing. She was not. She needed cases, and though she was loathe to admit, she needed causes. They fed her, got her out of bed in the morning (or mid-afternoon) and gave her purpose. She needed purpose._ _

__Trish had been a cause. Luke had been a cause. Hope had been a cause._ _

__“Can I see him?” she asked, standing up, indicating that it really wasn’t a question, just being polite._ _

__“He won’t know you’re there.”_ _

__“I’ll know.”_ _

__Tony nodded and stood up. “Of course. Happy will show you the way. Feel free to come whenever you’d like. I’ll make sure you have access. And if you think of anything useful.”_ _

__Jessica nodded and headed for the door. Not really listening._ _

__She had a cause. She had Matt._ _


End file.
